Tupaea Mika had been drinking before a fatal crash on State Highway 2 near Whakātane in October last year. Photo / NZME
An “honest, decent” 20-year-old man will stay in prison after he caused a woman’s death while driving drunk.
Tupea Mika is described in court documents as a caring and loving person who is genuinely remorseful for what he did.
But, in the words of Whakātane District Court Judge Louis Bidois, who sentenced Mika: “You drink and drive, you kill someone, you go to jail.”
Judge Bidois imposed a sentence of 14 and a half months in prison for two charges under the Land Transport Act - one each of causing death and injury while under the influence of alcohol or a drug.
Since being sentenced in July, Mika has appealed to the High Court, arguing that his jail sentence should have been commuted to home detention.
But High Court Justice Michele Wilkinson-Smith dismissed that appeal, saying there was “no material error” in the sentencing judge’s decision not to impose home detention in the place of imprisonment.
Home detention becomes an option when a jail term is imposed which is less than two years. The Sentencing Act requires judges to impose the “least restrictive option” that circumstances allow.
However, Justice Wilkinson-Smith said this was the second time in 18 months that Mika had been charged with a drink-driving offence while still a teenager.
He was 19 at the time of the fatal crash.
On the previous occasion, he had been fined and disqualified from driving for six months.
“This appellant was a repeat drink-driver on a restricted licence driving late at night who killed and injured other road users through carelessness,” Justice Wilkinson-Smith said in her decision.
Mika drank about eight to 10 bottles of beer on the evening of the accident, which happened on State Highway 2 south of Whakatāne about 11.40pm on October 4, 2024.
He crossed the centre line on a sweeping left-hand bend, colliding with an oncoming car containing a mother and adult daughter who were on their way home from work.
The mother was flown to Waikato Hospital, where she died from her injuries.
The daughter, who had been driving, suffered a cut to her knee which needed stitches, as well as abrasions, tenderness and bruising.
A blood sample taken about five hours after the collision showed Mika to have about 53mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood, indicating he probably had a level of between 100 and 180mg/ml at the time of the crash.
This would have been two to three times the adult drink-driving limit, but, as Mika was under the age of 20, he was not allowed to drive with any alcohol in his system at all.
He was also in breach of his restricted licence, because of the alcohol and driving after 10pm.
Mika, who was employed as a machine operator, pleaded guilty to the charges and was assessed as having a low risk of further offending.
His father described him as a very caring and loving person who grew up in a family with strong morals and values.
His partner described Mika, a former member of his school’s First XV, as a “good person who is both respectful and fun to be with”.
The sentencing judge acknowledged “glowing testimonials” which had been presented to court in his defence.
But “a life was taken”, the judge said.
“The lives of the daughter and no doubt the extended family have been damaged as a result of this forever,” he said.
The tragedy was entirely avoidable.
Offenders usually serve one-half of a short prison sentence, of under two years, meaning that Mika is likely to be released in March next year.
Judge Bidois’ message that people who drive and kill someone while impaired mirrors that of another judge, who imposed a jail term on a driver who had used cannabis before a fatal crash.
The Napier District Court was told in August that Alexander Lucas Kerr had cannabis in his system when he crashed his 2004 Honda Accord in a semi-rural part of Havelock North on the evening of January 2 this year.
One of his passengers, Wade William Crosbie, 19, died at the scene. Another passenger suffered spinal injuries and now uses a wheelchair.
Judge Russell Collins said a deterrent to driving while under the influence should be “embedded” in the whole community and imposed a prison sentence of two years and three months.
Judge Collins said if people asked the question, “What would happen if I killed someone through driving while impaired by drugs or alcohol?”, the answer should be, “Expect to go to jail”.
In February, Judge Collins sentenced another driver, Elliot Robert Dixon, to three years in prison for causing death and causing injury with an excess of a controlled drug in his system.
Dixon lost control of his vehicle near Whatawhata in Waikato, colliding with another car, killing his passenger and seriously injuring the driver of the other vehicle.
A blood sample showed Dixon had a level of THC - the active ingredient in cannabis - which was well above the high-risk limit set out in the Land Transport Act.
He also appealed his sentence to the High Court. The appeal was dismissed.
Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of frontline experience as a probation officer.